Discount Beer

It is interesting to watch Canada's sugar-pop-beer market battle these days in light of the success of discount beers. The main maker of the low cost lagers which are grabbing a share of the market is Lakeport from Hamilton, Ontario. A new CEO has been appointed at Lakeport who has been a player in their success:

A native of Hamilton, Ms. Cascioli was recruited to Lakeport in 1999 as the company was struggling to emerge from bankruptcy protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. At that time, the company was saddled with an inefficient plant, poor reporting systems, inadequate financing and a costly legal dispute with the parent of Ontario's The Beer Store retail chain. Since then, she helped grow market share by 400 per cent and turned the 200-employee brewer into a profitable concern. Lakeport -- the maker of the Steeler, Lakeport and Brava banners -- controls 6 per cent of Ontario take-home beer market, which excludes sales in bars and restaurants.

Conversely, Labatt is showing signs of losing its dominant place, letting staff go and chopping ad firms. Why? I asked a pal who buys discount beer - at the low to mid $20 for a case of 24. Labatt Blue is in the mid-$30s for the same amount with little perceptable difference in taste. Could it be that even the average beer buyer in Canada is ditching brand for value?

Maureen Ogle said this about the book: "... immensely readable, sometimes slightly surreal rumination on beer in general and craft beer in particular. Funny, witty, but most important: Smart. The beer geeks will likely get all cranky about it, but Alan and Max are the masters of cranky..."

Ron Pattinson said: "I'm in a rather odd situation. Because I appear in the book. A fictional version of me. It's a weird feeling."

Comments

And today, Labatt announced the closure of its Toronto plant: <blockquote class="smalltext">InBev NV, the world's No. 2 brewer, will close its Toronto plant, throwing 265 employees out of work as demand for the company's Labatt brand declines. InBev, which also makes Stella Artois and Beck's, will invest in the main Labatt brewery in London, Ontario, the Leuven, Belgium-based company said in an e-mailed statement. Competition from discount brewers in Ontario, Canada's biggest market, has eroded the market share of Labatt and Golden, Colorado-based Molson Coors Brewing Co. Discounters have introduced ``buck-a-beer'' brands that account for about a third of take-home sales in Ontario. </blockquote>

Im a lover of beer (Carling & Lakeport)and also work at a family business that specialize in Bulk liquid Food Hauling . We have hauled beer and would be happy to serve the needs of the brewing companies that are looking for a reliable , honest and cost efficiant transpoter. Cheers, Deb

Alan is apparently a Gen X-er who has hit 40... err...44... err... 45... YIKES... 46 ... [ZOW-WEE!!] 48... jessh, now 51... and edits and writes about other stuff at his personal website Gen X at 40. Please email Alan or any of the authors at this blog's gmail account - please write if you want to join the ranks of authors of this site or just want to send in a story on your favorite beer or photo of your regular pub.

I have moved the content of the OCB Commentary Wiki here. It is now a static document and pretty much is locked in as understandings existed as of 2012. Probably needs its own wiki to update the content! Below are the original introductory remarks:

"The purpose of this wiki is to collectively make comments, add annotation, identify errata and suggest further sources to the text of The Oxford Companion to Beer. Members are asked to avoid comment about the authors, the structure of the text or other extraneous matters. This wiki is a not for profit project that reviews the text pursuant to the concept of "fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review" under Canadian copyright law." Alan McLeod, wiki Organizer, and chief bottle washer at A Good Beer Blog. Motto? "Many hands make pleasant work." Alan McLeod, 25 October 2011. Please provide some information about yourself when making a request to join the wiki. Anonymous requests for membership will not be approved. Overly ardent and rudely put claims to authority will be cause for removal from the membership. As of 11 January 2012, 134 entries or 12.2% of the total of 1,100 received commentary, many with multiple comments. Eight of the photos have been corrected as well. That number rose to 151 by 13 May 2012.